Restoring Water Repellent

[Terrierman]

I have two lightweight jackets that should be waterproof but they aren't anymore.  One is Cabela's (pre-bass pro days) gore tex with camo quiet fabric on the outside.  The other is nylon shell Columbia with their proprietary membrane.  Both jackets have nylon mesh liners, they are favorites and have been around a few years.

I've been reading about treating rain gear with Durable Water Repellent.  Sounds like I may need to treat both of these, so I ordered a package of detergent that's supposed to help before treating again, and a 15oz. bottle of DWR spray.

Have any of you experts around here done anything similar?  What did you use and does it work?  

[Gavin]

No, that stuff doesn’t really work that well. But some new stuff. Once the taped seams start failing it’s over. I get about 10 good years out of a Goretex jacket, about 5-6 from a set of Goretex waders.

[nomolites]

It will help, but depending on wear in a continuous rain there will likely still be seepage.  I ended up buying a new pair of camo rain gear and use the retreated stuff(original Cabela’s Lifetime) for situations where I know it’s going to be get abused.  I retreated my Guidewear, which was not yet leaking, and it seems to have refreshed them very nicely.

Mike

[Terrierman]

After reading more on this I'm going to try the Nikwax detergent followed by the Nikwax wash in treatment.  The best results I've read had an overnight soak in the detergent, then in the washing machine and then the wash in treatment and then the dryer.  I'm willing to risk $30 to see really any improvement.  These aren't real raingear, just jackets for the house to shop and so on.  But now, even that gets me wet,

[ColdWaterFshr]

Gore-Tex is the only reliable.  I've used some cheap water-proof aerosol stuff to re-coat some jackets that were not gore-tex, and also some tent flies.  Smells bad and takes a long time to lose its smell, but it does seem to work, at least for a couple seasons.

[Terrierman]

20 minutes ago, ColdWaterFshr said:

Gore-Tex is the only reliable.  I've used some cheap water-proof aerosol stuff to re-coat some jackets that were not gore-tex, and also some tent flies.  Smells bad and takes a long time to lose its smell, but it does seem to work, at least for a couple seasons.

One of mine is Gore-Tex, the other is Columbia knock off.  They both used to work good, so I hope I can get them at least better.  I'm using a wash in from Nikwax.

[fishinwrench]

We've had good results using both of these products, used on boat cushions, Bimini's,  umbrella's & various covers.